Category:Langlois Bridge

Being one of eleven draw bridges built by a Dutch engineer along the channel from Arles to Port-de-Bouc, this bridge might have remembered the artist his homeland. Van Gogh obviously misunderstood the bridge's name, which was the name of its long-time keeper, Langlois, and referred to it in letters as "Pont de l'Anglais" ["Englishman's Bridge"] in letters 469 and 488 (where he also notes that some of the Arles scenery remembers him the Netherlands).

The original wooden bridge was replaced by an armoured concrete bridge in 1930 which was destroyed in 1944, as were nine others out of eleven along the channel. In Fos-sur-Mer, however, one of the original wooden bridges survived. Thisone was unmounted in 1959 and rebuilt at Arles by 1962, but, for practial reasons, some 2 kilometers away from its original place, and somewhat outside the town within a scenery which is somewhat similar to the one the artist had painted.(Gaspard-Monge street; the original place, today situated within town, is taken by Réginelle bridge).

The "moved" bridge, which was named Pont Van Gogh (Van Gogh bridge) from that time on, is owned by the Arles tourist board. It had to be "completely restored" later, which was accomplished by 1997.